Down-to-Earth priorities may scuttle future space plans

Max Harrold, Montreal Gazette07.20.2011

In this handout provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), space shuttle Atlantis launches from pad 39A on July 8, 2011 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. With fretting over the public financing of health care, education and infrastructure unlikely to wane soon, politicians in Canada and the U.S. may try to stall ambitious and costly missions to an asteroid or Mars in favour of more pressing down-to-Earth priorities.

Related

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." — Sir Edmund Hillary

MONTREAL — The most cheerless moment in the tumultuous, 30-year history of the space shuttle may have been Thursday, when Atlantis returned to Earth — the final shuttle mission in a program that has included 133 safe flights, two disasters and Canadians reaching the stars and achieving amazing scientific heights.

But now the question becomes what's next?

And with fretting over the public financing of health care, education and infrastructure unlikely to wane soon, politicians in Canada and the United States may try to stall ambitious and costly missions to an asteroid or Mars in favour of more pressing down-to-Earth priorities.

And why should Canada spend a fortune on what is so distant, risky and undiscovered?

"Momentum," astronomer Nathalie Martimbeau replies. "If we pause space programs for five or 10 years, then we lose momentum. The structure — the engineers and the teachers — will go somewhere else. When we start again we'll have to start from almost zero."

Martimbeau, who creates astronomy shows at the Montreal Planetarium for children and adults, knows very well the primal sense of wonder evoked by a starry sky and the environmental awareness it often clinches.

While looking skyward is free, she feels strongly that pricey satellites such as the Hubble Space Telescope and its planned successor, the James Webb Space Telescope — which Canada has heavily invested in but is currently threatened in the budget-minded U.S. Congress — are natural, essential extensions of humanity's keen eye for space.

Martimbeau said severe cutbacks in the world's space research will have a chilling effect on its byproducts.

"These things may not solve famines and diseases but they do contribute to our knowledge. And in the end it's about the philosophical questions: Who we are, where we came from and where are we going."

There are some big space plans in the near-term for this country.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield will be the first Canadian to pilot a Russian Soyuz spacecraft when he launches aboard one to the International Space Station in the fall of 2012. He'll be the second Canadian to live on the station for a long time — in space terms that's six months. He'll mark another first for this country when he takes over as commander of the $135-billion space lab for the last three months of his stay.

Besides the Webb telescope, for which the government-funded Canadian Space Agency has earmarked $147 million, a next-generation robotic Canadarm is in its initial design stages but is stalled as the CSA awaits direction from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration — NASA. The new device might find a home on a privately built American shuttle replacement, the Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle. But the earliest that vehicle might be ready is 2016 — and that's being optimistic.

Two newly minted Canadian astronauts are also the subject of talks to be included as future crew members with NASA and other nation-partners. But there are no green lights.

Some in the Canadian space industry also have questions about Ottawa's policy on space.

Iain Christie is president of Neptec, a prized Canadian contractor for NASA and maker of optical and laser guidance systems used to mate spacecrafts in orbit, including the space shuttle. He said he finds it hard to understand why the Canadian government is still thinking about whether or not to continue maintaining Canada's successful remaining space-based robotics systems — the Canadarm 2 and the Dextre handyman robot on the space station — after 2015 even though the station will be operational until 2020.

"Canada hasn't yet said clearly that it will keep operating the systems after 2015," Christie said, despite other nations already pledging to do their share on the station in that period. "We risk having to assign all of our robotics to the U.S." if the government doesn't say yes soon, he said.

The cost of maintaining the systems would be $90 million over five years, Christie added. "What we have achieved with the Canadarms is something every other country envies."

Kevin Shortt, president of the non-profit Canadian Space Society, said the federal government needs to take the lead on Canada's direction in space.

"Canada needs a long-term space policy," said Shortt. It would go beyond the basic mission statement of the agency of "leading the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity." A long-term plan would wrap itself around specific goals — like robotic or human missions with specific destinations and purposes — so industry could in turn focus its resources, Shortt said.

A long-term plan was prepared by CSA chief — and ex-astronaut — Steve MacLean in 2009 but then rejected by the Conservative government, he notes. Why? Details of the proposed plan were not made public, he said.

Chuck Black, treasurer of the Canadian Space Commerce Association, a trade group for the nation's small, yet fast-growing, space industry comprising 150 companies and 7,500 jobs, said the federal government doesn't need to throw a ton of money at the industry; it just needs to make some gutsy policy choices.

For example the government's stated goal of a beefed-up northern sovereignty stance could get a big homegrown boost with more Earth observation satellites built in Canada. "Instead they're buying much more expensive F-35 fighter planes and destroyer ships" from U.S. defence contractors, Black said. "Without satellites, an icebreaker is only as good as the eyes of the ship's pilot."

Industry Minister Christian Paradis is in charge of the Canadian Space Agency.

In Florida to watch the final space shuttle launch up close earlier this month, he told reporters that while it's true there are fewer Canadian projects in the air, he's optimistic. "Some things are moving on and we have to seize the opportunities," Paradis said.

"I believe in our astronauts, our skills and our expertise that we have developed over the years. I think we can position ourselves to have our astronauts in space in the future, for sure."

Asked about setting a long-term space plan, Paradis said he just took on the Industry job and he's working on it.

"This is a priority for us," he said. "We want to continue to be a recognized player here."

The underlying question about space exploration is still "why bother?" It is an even more pertinent issue now, as people reassess priorities after the shuttle, said Paul Delaney, a professor of physics and astronomy at York University in Toronto.

"The role of Canadarm fixing the Hubble telescope was amazing, and truly inspiring to Canadians," Delaney said. "Getting the Hubble up and fixed was arguably the single greatest event in the past 20 years.

"Now we're at a very pivotal moment. But our destiny is out there, beyond Earth's orbit."

mharrold@montrealgazette.com

What's next for the Canadian Space Agency?

• November 2012: Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield will pilot a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station where he will live and work for six months as part of the crew of Expedition 34/35. In the second half of his mission Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the ISS — a milestone for Canadian space exploration and further recognition that Canada is a full-fledged partner in the multinational space lab. In addition to overseeing operations, Hadfield will carry out scientific experiments, operate Canadarm2 and perform various robotics tasks.

• 2011-16: Canada plans to launch two satellites this year or next. One will be the world's first dedicated to tracking and detecting asteroids and satellites. Another will study Earth's upper atmosphere and the effects of solar storms.

• 2014: the James Webb Telescope, with Canadian-made pointing and guidance instruments on-board, is set to launch. Considered the successor to the pioneering Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb would be stationed 1.5 million kilometres from Earth and use infrared technology to probe even farther into the universe than Hubble.

• 2014-16: The CSA is planning to launch three more Radarsat communications and Earth observation satellites in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, the CSA will launch two satellites in a highly elliptical orbit over the North Pole to provide around-the-clock weather and climate change data on Canada's far North.

• New astronauts: Jeremy Hansen, a former CF-18 fighter pilot raised in Ontario, and David Saint-Jacques, a Quebec engineer and doctor, are training with the NASA astronaut corps in Houston. The CSA is touting them as potential crew members on future missions to the ISS, which will be operational until 2020, and possibly 2028. They are Canada's most likely candidates for inclusion on possible human spaceflights to the moon, an asteroid or Mars.

• Space R & D: the CSA and the MDA Corp., a Canadian company, are developing a next-generation Canadarm that could possibly be used with a new spacecraft for deep space missions being built by Lockheed Martin for NASA. The arm might be used to service satellites in orbit. MDA also has CSA contracts to study a Canadian-designed human lunar rover concept and a Canadian robotic lunar lander mission. The work is being done with Canadian university researchers.